Kill the King Read Online Free PDF Page B

and I
don’t want to see her get hurt.”
    “I appreciate
you caring about Gloria so much. It almost seems as if maybe. .
.”
    Tyler gave
Khaled a knowing glance, firm and authoritative. Khaled was much
brighter than most would expect out of a man of his build, but he
wasn’t in the same league as Tyler’s and there was no way he could
talk his way out of it.
    Only the child
tells what goes on in the house.
    Khaled sulked.
He was cornered. He averted his eyes before continuing. “I’ve been
seeing Gloria while you were gone. It wasn’t planned or anything. I
just. . .”
    “You just
decided to shove your cock down her throat while I was locked up in
a cage? Is that what you were gonna say, Khaled?”
    Tyler’s tone
was measured enough to be threatening but not outright hostile. He
wasn’t interested in humiliating neither himself nor Gloria in this
conversation. . .only Khaled.
    “You saw an
opportunity to fuck my woman while I whittled away my days in
solitary, and you took it. It didn’t matter to you that she’s mine. Mine . Marko likes to say that a thief can’t stop
thieving, just like a whore can’t stop whoring. Did the both of
you decide to take that to heart?”
    This was a
gratuitous swipe at Khaled, but Tyler felt it was necessary to not
look too complacent and forgiving. Khaled had to be shown that this
was still a serious infraction. Countless men have wound up dead
for such betrayals. Tyler then rolled his eyes and nudged Khaled
into continuing with his confession.
    “You are my
only real friend, and you mean everything to Gloria. I promised
myself that I’d look after her while you were gone. I just wanted
her to be safe. I didn’t plan for any of this. It’s just that the
both of us got so lonely and we found some comfort together. After
a while, we—”
    Tyler lifted
his hand up to cut him off. The admission of guilt was sufficient
and no further details regarding this affair would be of any use to
him.
    “I’ve heard
enough. I had already suspected this as soon as you woke me up.
Gloria wouldn’t have given you the keys to her place without a good
reason.”
    Khaled cringed
at the thought of it. He had been too indiscrete.
    “Look, you did
the right thing, looking after Gloria while I was gone. She looks
healthy and her place is pretty clean, and though she’s still
working the nights for the extra money it doesn’t look like she’s
working every night either. Make no mistake that I’m raw about all
this but I don’t hate you either. If I were the jealous type, I
never would have gotten involved with a working girl.”
    Khaled looked
painfully confused. Were they in opposite places in this situation,
he would have taken a bat to Tyler’s skull halfway through his
confession.
    “Do you love
her, Tyler?”
    “Do you love her, Khaled?”
    He sulked again
with a shamed expression in his eyes. Tyler had done well in
breaking him. Even the ones closest to you have to be broken
sometimes if you are to keep control over them. It was often the
ones closest to you who would betray you when you least suspected
it. Letting your guard down could cost you your life. The
underworld was piled high with bodies showing surprised faces.
Tyler himself intended on adding Boreta to that very pile.
    “Yeah.”
    Only the child
tells what goes on in the house.
    “And does
Gloria share the same feelings for you?”
    Khaled averted
his eyes and bit his lip, hesitating to speak any further on this
matter. “I don’t know. Maybe. She still loves you. I don’t know if
she has any room in her heart for me. So. . .”
    Khaled paused
in hesitation again. It was a deeply tense and awkward conversation
for both men.
    “Where. .
.where does that leave us? You, me, Gloria. . .”
    Tyler shrugged
and finished his coffee before stepping out of the booth. “That’s a
problem we’ll have to solve some other day. We’ve got bigger shit
to deal with right now.”
    He put on his
jacket, tossed a cigarette in